OR: The Thanksgiving of the Pomegranate Chutney
A post dedicated to Hillary G. who is one half of the reigning King and Queen of creative jam making and canning and who would be very excited to make up a bunch of this in cute jars for gifts, and of course selfish consumption. Oh, yes, Hillary, we will have a major session upon our return!
We pulled off a satisfying meal with all the major players and a few special guest appearances. Our biggest happy maker was an improvisation for cranberry sauce in the form of Pomegranate Chutney. Usually Ryan's parents make a big jar of delicious spiced whole crans with plenty of orange peel and it continues to dye our sandwiches and left-over plates for days following Turkey Day. This year I couldn't find cranberries but was lucky enough to meet Ann, a former Peace Corps volunteer who lived in a small village outside of Agadir for two years. She is really into food and is working on a Moroccan cookbook, but more importantly knows how to make deliciousness out of all that IS available in southern Morocco...and thus Pomegranate Chutney. She made this recipe riffing off a great aunt's Peach Chutney recipe. I had to improv even more by not adding any dried cranberries, using a dollop of raspberry jam for some pectin energy, and adding coarse black pepper. The result was an awesome chutney jazz that is juicy, spicy and fruity, and perfectly suited to a Thanksgiving meal and even better on a post-Thanksgiving leftover baguette sandwich!
Pomegranates are purely a fruit of paradise, they are temptation with a peel, and they are also a total pain to de-seed. Luckily, amazing tips I didn't know came with Ann's recipe. Slice the crown off the pom. quarter the rest and drop in water. Work out the seeds underwater. The seeds float to the bottom, the juices don't get EVERYWHERE, and the parts you don't want FLOAT! I love food trickery like this!
(also pictured is our BPA free cutting board that I brought all the way here!)
After cooking all the spices, onion, honey, vinegar and sugar down and stirring, stirring, stirring, the chutney cooled into this bejeweled beauty and took its place in the fridge until go-time.
We got to chopping sage and parsley and readied the rest of our ingredients.
A big score was that I found dried out bread at the store. This bag is the size of my torso and had enough for a huge pan of stuffing and enough left over for a huge pan of breakfast strata.
Entire sack = $0.46! I'll never be able to buy bread cubes in the US again.
The other special guest also came from Ann's inspiration: Moroccan Sweet Carrot Salad. A classic Moroccan salad in the sense that it is a few ingredients, put together simply, with ultra satisfying results. This salad is 3-4 carrots grated finely, (pictured below) 1-2 apples peeled and grated coarsely, a touch of sugar and a touch of water, let juicify and combine in the fridge to ultimate Moroccan perfect yet again! It was such a great complement to all the starchiness and actually looked like bright yams on the plate.
Ryan wanted to document the fact that I actually cleaned up the entire kitchen BEFORE the meal. This is something I know is Cooking 101, but I rarely do entirely. In a tiny kitchen where we had to use the top of the refrigerator for a surface, you just can't wait to clean! What you see in the picture is the extent of our counter space.
One slight frustration I've encountered is we can't find measuring cups or spoons A N Y W H E R E! I left mine at home thinking it would be a cinch to get some here. Nope. Luckily, one day I noticed my sports water bottle has cups AND milliliters on it. It has now become our go-to measuring device which is totally inconvenient, but will have to do until we can call in for reinforcements.
Ryan was on pie duty and had to improvise mostly in the tools and equipment department.
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters crossed the Atlantic waters with us too!
Wine bottle rolling pin, just like the pioneers.
We drained the apples after they were tossed with sugar and cinnamon, and then combined the juice with more butter and a little flour to make it extra thick and caramely, recombined with the apples and voila...
Cute little pie.
With some roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and homemade gravy in addition to the stuffing
(double serving for me please), chutney and carrot salad, our Thanksgiving meal was complete.
Hope all of you at home had a good one too!
